Environmental Impacts of Reusable Transport Items: A Case Study of Pallet Pooling in a Retailer Supply Chain

Abstract

Manufacturing, storage, and transportation processes are typically facilitated by pallets, containers, and other reusable transport items (RTIs) designed to guarantee many cycles along a lifespan of several years. As a consequence, both supply and reverse transportation of RTIs need to be managed to avoid stockout along the supply chain and the unsustainable production of new tools from virgin materials. This paper focuses on the business of pallet management by analyzing the transport operations of a pallet pooling network serving a large-scale nationwide retailer. The pooler is responsible for supplying, collecting, and refurbishing pallets. The combination of the pooler's management strategies with different retailer network configurations results in different pooling scenarios, which are assessed and compared in this paper through a what-if analysis. The logistical and environmental impacts generated by the pallet distribution activities are quantified per each scenario through a tailored software incorporating Geographic Information System (GIS) and routing functionalities. Findings from this analysis suggest how to reduce vehicle distance traveled (vehicles-km) by 65% and pollutant emissions by 60% by combining network infrastructures and pooling management strategies-identifying an empirical best practice for managers of pallet businesses.Sustainability 2019, 11, 3147 2 of 13 handling, storage, and collection of reusable items [6]. In such networks, the trade-off between the emissions released by transportation and the reduction in the use of virgin materials has to be identified in order to achieve environmental sustainability targets [7][8][9]. This aim requires a deep understanding of the observed network, highlighting the crucial role of the data collection process in order to enhance the accuracy of the obtained result [10].Scholars have already pointed out how alternative pallet management strategies across the CLNs can generate different environmental impacts associated with the whole pallet life cycle, as well as different logistical costs [11]. Among the most diffused strategies, this paper focuses on two, both based on pallet re-circulation. The first is the buy-sell program, in which an equal number of pallets received by a node of the supply chain is shipped back to the previous node through a back-haul trip. The entire pallet supply and collection process is hence assigned to the carriers or the truck fleet owners, who are implicitly responsible for balancing the overall pallet population throughout the supply chain. An improved version of this program consists of consolidating pallets and arranging full-loaded back-trips.A second strategy, namely the pooling program, involves a new actor, the pooler, who is responsible for supplying ready-to-use pallets to vendors, manufacturers, and other logistic nodes; collecting pallets from customers or downstream; refurbishing damaged pallets; and holding inventory within its facilities until new pallet orders are placed. While the pooling program typic...

Environmental Impacts of Wood Pallets: A Systematic Review

“…(2016) [10]. • Logistic strategy influence on wood pallet environmental impact: wood pallet reverse logistics -Tornese et al (2019) [11]; lifecycle of wood pallets as single-use expendable, reusable buy/sell and reusable leased pool - Carrano et al (2014) [12]; the combination of the pooler's management strategies with different retailer network configurations and the business of pallet management by analyzing the transport operations -Accorsi et al (2019) [13].…”

Measuring the Performance of Pallet Rental Companies: Integer-Valued DEA Models With Generalized Reference Sets

“…Ren et al and Zhou et al researched the optimization methodology for pallet allocation by applying linear and nonlinear programming models [12], [13]. Bilbao et al, Carrano et al, Tornese et al, and Accorsi et al studied the environmental impacts of rental pallets [14]- [18]. However, as far as we know, there is no literature on the performance evaluation of pallet rental companies except our previous study.…”

An optimization model for fleet sizing and empty pallet allocation considering CO2 emissions

“…Ren et al [19], Doungpattra et al [20], Zhou et al [21], and Kesen and Alim [22] developed some optimization models for empty pallet allocation. Bilbao et al [23], Carrano et al [24], Tornese et al [25], Bengtssona and Logie [26], Tornese et al [27], Accorsi et al [28], and Kočí [29] measured carbon emissions from pallet logistics and proposed that pallet rental system was the most environmentally friendly pallet management mode.…”